Mobile devices and wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of electronic communication content such as voice, data, and so on. While electronic forms of communication (e.g., email, text messages, voicemail, phone calls) have enabled people to conveniently contact and interact with others, the richness of electronic communications is attenuated.
Electronic communications, by themselves, do not generally convey the full emotional state of the sender. For example, research suggests that a small amount of emotional context in a given message is conveyed by the words (e.g., text in an electronic communications). A greater amount of the emotional context is conveyed vocally by the tone of the voice. An even greater amount is expressed using non-verbal communication, such as facial expression and other body gestures (Mehrabian, Albert; Ferris, Susan R. (1967). “Inference of Attitudes from Nonverbal Communication in Two Channels”. Journal of Consulting Psychology 31 (3): 248-252). With regards to electronic communications, the emotional context or emotional state of the sender is commonly misinterpreted by the receiver.
Biopotential electrodes may be used with biosensors to collect physiological data from the human body. The physiological data may be used to determine an emotional state of a person. In addition, the biosensors may be used to monitor the physical health of a person. The biosensors may convert a biological response into an electrical signal. Typically, these electrodes that include biosensors are a standard shape and size (e.g., 8 mm flat disc). The electrical signals generated from the biological response are relatively small. As a result, even a small amount of noise may significantly interfere with the electrical signal. This may cause the determined emotional or physiological state of the person to be inaccurate or unknown.
A biopotential electrode with a large surface area may decrease the amount of noise that may cause interference with the electrical signals created by the biosensors, but using a biopotential electrode array with a large surface area may be impractical. On the other hand, a biopotential electrode with too small of a surface area may increase the amount of noise and render the reading of electrical signals associated with physiological data impractical.